Right judgment in Bradley Manning case: Editorial

The military judge sitting in judgment of Pfc. Bradley Manning for leaking military documents to the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks got her decision exactly right.

Col. Denise Lind found Manning guilty of most of the lesser charges against him but acquitted him of the more serious charge of aiding U.S. enemies. The decision means Manning is likely to serve significant jail time but he avoided the life without possibility of parole sentence that accompanies the aiding-enemies charge.

A guilty verdict on that charge would have set a horrible precedent. Leaking documents to the news media or the Internet is not acting in concert with America's foes. And claiming that it is has a chilling effect on potential government whistle-blowers.

The verdict was a setback for the Obama administration, which has been seeking a clear victory in its campaign to discourage government leaks.

In this case there was little doubt that Manning leaked more than 700,000 pages of classified documents to WikiLeaks and that doing so violated his oath. WikiLeaks then posted the sensitive material online.

Prosecutors argued that the 25-year-old Manning betrayed his oath and his country, which is covered by the lesser charges, but also argued that he had assisted al-Qaida because the terrorist group could access secret material once WikiLeaks posted it. That theory has the potential to significantly thwart press and public scrutiny of the military.

It was Pvt. Henry Vanderwater, a Union soldier, who was last successfully prosecuted for aiding the enemy through a leak to a publication. Vanderwater was found guilty of leaking a Union roster to an Alexandria, Va., newspaper. He was dishonorably discharged and served a three-month sentence.

The judge's decision came at the end of an eight-week trial in which the prosecution and defense battled to shape Manning's image. Prosecutors cast him as a dangerous loose cannon who had caused profound damage.

Defense attorney David Combs, however, repeatedly portrayed Manning as "well-intentioned" and simply naive. He said Manning was motivated by the violence in Iraq and wanted to "spark a worldwide discussion."

He certainly accomplished that. Now he must pay the price for choosing that path.